Matthew Choi
Partner
Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP
Biography
Matthew Choi practises commercial law, with a primary focus in debt financing.
He has experience acting for both lenders and borrowers in various types of financing transactions, ranging from bilateral loans to syndicated facilities, involving security on real and personal property, marine vessels, securities, forest licences, and involving corporations, trusts and other legal entities in Canada, the US and Asia. He has also advised businesses and financial institutions on regulatory compliance in the areas of finance and consumer protection. Matthew has also provided commercial services in real estate, First Nations-related lending and property development on reserve lands.
He completed a B.A.Sc. in electronic engineering and was a design engineer at a telecommunication software company in Vancouver. Before law school he lived in Beijing for six months and completed a Mandarin immersion program at Tsinghua University.
Professional experience
Collapse allLL.B., University of British Columbia, 2005
Diploma, Chinese immersion program, Tsinghua University, 2002
B.A.Sc. (Hons.), Simon Fraser University, 2001
- British Columbia 2006
Matters in which Matthew has acted include the following:
- Acted for Ontario Sports Solutions Limited Partnership, the successful consortium consisting of Bouygues Building Canada Inc. and Kenadian Contracting Ltd., in connection with the $200 million design-build-finance P3 contract for the reconstruction of Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton, the construction of a new athletics stadium at York University, a new cycling Velodrome in Milton, ON, and two running tracks in Toronto, all for use during the 2015 Toronto Pan American Games
- Acted for a syndicate of lenders to the successful consortium, Plenary Health Kelowna Limited Partnership, in connection with the $95 million contract to design-build-finance-maintain P3 contract for the new Interior Heart and Surgical Centre at Kelowna General Hospital in Kelowna, BC
- Acted as counsel to lead agent and lenders in connection with $325 million syndicated facilities to a large forestry company with operations in Canada and the US
- Acting for a real estate developer and asset manager in a series of private placements of secured notes by way of trust indentures for the financing of real estate acquisitions and developments located across Canada
- Advised a BC-based credit union on a multi-phase upgrade of its retail lending documentation and other consumer lending compliance issues, and in developing a series of unique lending programs with socially responsible objectives in areas such as emission reduction and First Nation-related initiatives
- Advised and organized a series of private equity funds that provide bridge and operating financing to enterprises in the technology sectors in Canadian and the US, including loans margined on various federal and provincial tax-credit incentive programs
- Acted for a group of Chinese investors in a joint venture with a Canadian mining interest in a gemstone mining operation located in northern BC
- Advised a Chinese investor in organizing an investment vehicle for the acquisition and cultivation of farmlands in the Canadian prairies
- Advised a private lender in underwriting a $16 million loan to a First Nation to finance the acquisition of lands through Crown grants
- Canadian Bar Association
- Vancouver Rowing Club
- Association of Corporate Growth (Vancouver chapter)